A History of Britain is a BBC documentary series written and presented by Simon Schama, first transmitted in the United Kingdom from 30 September 2000.
A study of the history of the British Isles,
each of the 15 episodes allows Schama to examine a particular period
and tell of its events in his own style. All the programmes are of 59
minutes' duration and were broadcast over three series, ending 18 June
2002.
The series was produced in conjunction with The History Channel and the executive producer was Martin Davidson. The music was composed by John Harle, whose work was augmented by vocal soloists such as Emma Kirkby and Lucie Skeaping. Schama's illustrative presentation was aided by readings from actors, including Lindsay Duncan, Michael Kitchen, Christian Rodska, Samuel West and David Threlfall.

Background

When Simon Schama was approached by the BBC to make the series, he
knew that it would be a big commitment and took a long time to decide
whether it was something he wanted to do. He surmised that if he were to
take it on, he would want to "dive in" and be very involved with the
production. Besides writing the scripts, which the historian saw as a
"screenplay", he also had an input into other aspects, including the
choice of locations. He was concerned that even 15 hour-long programmes
would not be enough to tell a story of such magnitude. Accordingly, he
and the producers determined that to give each king and queen absolute
equal coverage was out of the question: "That way lies madness," he
said. Instead, he worked out the essential themes and stories that
demanded to be related.[1]
Schama explained why, at the time of its making, it was right to
produce another historical documentary on Great Britain. At that moment,
he argued, Britain was entering a new phase of its relationship with
Europe and the rest of the world, and where it ends up depends a great
deal on where it's come from. He stated that the stories needed to be
told again and again so that future generations could get a sense of
their identity. Furthermore, he believed that Britain's history
comprised a number of tales worth telling:

"No matter how much you tell them, you never quite know … how compelling and moving they are."[2]

Criticisms

The main criticism of A History of Britain is that it mostly
revolves around England and its history, rather than that of the entire
British Isles. It has been criticised for giving short shrift to the
Celtic inhabitants and civilisation of the British Isles, including
England.[3]
In a BBC interview, Simon Schama stated that rather than designating
different periods of screen time to different nations, he focused on the
relationships between the different nations, primarily England and
Scotland. This appears to be truer in "Nations", "The Body of the Queen"
and "Britannia Incorporated" than at times when each of the nations is
involved in the same event, such as the two episodes involving the
revolutions in the seventeenth century, "The British Wars" and
"Revolutions". By the latter episodes, however, all "Three Kingdoms" are
parts of the United Kingdom.

Episodes

"From its earliest days, Britain was an object of desire. Tacitus declared it pretium victoriae
– 'worth the conquest', the best compliment that could occur to a
Roman. He had never visited these shores but was nonetheless convinced
that Britannia was rich in gold."

— Simon Schama's opening narration

The following summaries are taken from the BBC DVD.

1. "Beginnings"

Covering the period 3100 BCE – 1000 CE. Simon Schama starts his story in the stone age village of Skara Brae, Orkney. Over the next four thousand years Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Danes, and Christian missionaries arrive, fight, settle and leave their mark on what will become the nations of Britain.

2. "Conquest"

Broadcast 7 October 2000 and covering 1000–1087. 1066 is not the best
remembered date in British history for nothing. In the space of nine
hours whilst the Battle of Hastings raged, everything changed. Anglo-Saxon England became Norman and, for the next 300 years, its fate was decided by dynasties of Norman rulers.

3. "Dynasty"

Broadcast 14 October 2000 and covering 1087–1216. There is no saga
more powerful than that of the warring dynasty – domineering father,
beautiful, scheming mother and squabbling, murderous sons and daughters,
(particularly the nieces). In the years that followed the Norman Conquest, this was the drama played out on the stage of British history.

4. "Nations"

Broadcast 21 October 2000 and covering 1216–1348, this is the epic
account of how the nations of Britain emerged from under the hammer of
England's "Longshanks" King Edward I, with a sense of who and what they were, which endures to this day.

5. "King death"

Broadcast 28 October 2000 and covering 1348–1500. It took only six years for the plague
to ravage the British Isles. Its impact was to last for generations.
But from the ashes of this trauma an unexpected and unique class of
Englishmen emerged.

6. "Burning convictions"

Broadcast 4 November 2000 and covering 1500–58. Here Simon Schama
charts the upheaval caused as a country renowned for its piety, whose
king styled himself Defender of the Faith, turns into one of the most aggressive proponents of the new Protestant faith.

7. "The body of the Queen"

Broadcast 8 November 2000 and covering 1558–1603. This is the story of two queens: Elizabeth I of England, the Protestant virgin, and Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic mother. It is also the story of the birth of a nation, Magna Britannia - Great Britain.

8. "The British wars"

Broadcast 8 May 2001 and covering 1603–1649. The turbulent civil wars
of the early seventeenth century would culminate in two events unique
to British history; the public execution of a king and the creation of a
republic.
Schama tells of the brutal war that tore the country in half and
created a new Britain – divided by politics and religion and dominated
by the first truly modern army, fighting for ideology, not individual leaders.

9. "Revolutions"

Broadcast 15 May 2001 and covering 1649–1689. Political and religious revolutions racked Britain after Charles I's execution, when Britain was a joyless, kingless republic led by Oliver Cromwell.
His rule became so unpopular that for many it was a relief when the
monarchy was restored after his death, but Cromwell was also a man of
vision who brought about significant reforms.

10. "Britannia incorporated"

Broadcast 22 May 2001 and covering 1690–1750. As the new century
dawned, relations between Scotland and England had never been worse. Yet
half a century later the two countries would be making a future
together based on profit and interest. The new Britain was based on
money, not God.

11. "The wrong empire"

Broadcast 29 May 2001 and covering 1750–1800. The exhilarating and terrible story of how the British Empire came into being through its early settlements—the Caribbean through the sugar plantations (and helped by slavery), the land that later became the United States and India through the British East India Company--and
how it eventually came to dominate the world. A story of exploration
and daring, but also one of exploitation, conflict, and loss.

12. "Forces of nature"

Broadcast 28 May 2002 and covering 1780–1832. Britain never had the
kind of revolution experienced by France in 1789, but it did come close.
In the mid-1770s the country was intoxicated by a great surge of
political energy. Re-discovering England's wildernesses, the
intellectuals of the "romantic generation" also discovered the plight of the common man, turning nature into a revolutionary force.

13. "Victoria and her sisters"

Broadcast 4 June 2002 and covering 1830–1910. As the Victorian era began, the massive advance of technology and industrialisation
was rapidly reshaping both the landscape and the social structure of
the whole country. To a much greater extent than ever before women would
take a centre-stage role in shaping society.

14. "The empire of good intentions"

Broadcast 11 June 2002 and covering 1830–1925. This episode charts
the chequered life of the liberal empire from Ireland to India – the
promise of civilisation and material betterment and the delivery of
coercion and famine.

15. "The two Winstons"

Broadcast 18 June 2002 and covering 1910–1965. In the final episode,
Schama examines the overwhelming presence of the past in the British
twentieth century and the struggle of leaders to find a way to make a
different national future. As towering figures of the twentieth century,
Churchill and Orwell (through his 1984 character Winston Smith)
in their different ways exemplify lives spent brooding and acting on
that imperial past, and most movingly for us, writing and shaping its
history.

"… It's our cultural bloodstream, the secret of who we are, and it
tells us to let go of the past, even as we honour it. To lament what
ought to be lamented and to celebrate what should be celebrated. And if
in the end, that history turns out to reveal itself as a patriot, well
then I think that neither Churchill nor Orwell would have minded that
very much, and as a matter of fact, neither do I."

— Simon Schama, in closing

A History of Britain: Volume 2

DVDs and books

The series is available in the UK (Regions 2 and 4) as a six-disc DVD (BBCDVD1127, released 18 November 2002) in widescreen PAL
format. Its special features include short interviews with Simon
Schama, a text-based biography of the historian, and the inaugural BBC
History Lecture of Schama's "Television and the Trouble with History".
In Region 1, it was released as A History of Britain: the complete collection on 26 November 2002. A five-disc set, the episodes were presented in full-frame NTSC
format and included various text-based features. It was re-released on
22 July 2008 in a new slim-case version. It was released again in Region
1 on 17 August 2010 in a format nearly identical to the UK version
noted above.
Three accompanying books by Simon Schama have been published by BBC Books. All entitled A History of Britain, they were subtitled as follows: